Brigadier General Jon Temlong (retd), while in the military, was the Commander in charge of Multinational Joint Task Force, Baga. He was also a delegate to the 2014 National Conference and Plateau State governorship candidate of Action Democratic Party (ADP) in the 2019 elections. He speaks to ISAAC SHOBAYO on the recent abduction of students in Katsina State amid worsening insecurity and corruption in the country.
Sir, insecurity pervades every nook and cranny of Nigeria, the recent being the abduction of 333 students of Government Science Secondary school Kankara, Katsina State. How did Nigeria get to this level of insecurity?
Security is something you can feel; it is tangible; it not abstract. So if you say the level of insecurity in the country is frightening, yes it is. About 333 secondary school students of Kankara who were abducted last week are still in captivity and here in Jos, kidnapping is a daily occurrence. Kaduna to Abuja road, Birni-Gwari road, almost all our major highways are not safe. Just about three days ago a lady was abducted in her home around 11:00 p.m at Doi village here in Plateau State. I think everybody is feeling the pinch of insecurity in this country and it is quite frightening. We all need to put our hands on the deck to make sure that we stem the tide of this situation that is deteriorating so fast. You can imagine now Kano, Zamfara and Katsina have closed their schools. By this action, Boko Haram is acheving its aim and objective of prohibiting western education in Nigeria.
The modes of operation of Boko Haram and other elements terrorising the country are similar. From the Chibok girls to the abduction of 333 secondary school students in Katsina State, it is the same approach and/or method of operations. Why is it difficult for the security agencies to tame the situation or can we say the military has been technically defeated?
One of the tragedies in Nigeria is that we think the solution to this insecurity is solely the responsibility of the Army Forces and other security agencies. What we are doing currently is just the sectorial tackling of the situation, but asymmetric warfare is population-centric. And population-centric, which is an asymmetric warfare, is a contest that is won and lost by controlling and influencing population rather than occupying space or territory. The population, if not controlled or influenced by the government as in Nigeria, becomes the oxygen of the insurgents or the terrorists. In other words, our strategy has not taken into effect the oxygen of the insurgents or the terrorists, so they are busy recruiting and getting bolder. They have informants within the security and the society. So it becomes very difficult for the security agencies to tackle them. What we need is all of government approach and all of people approach to tackle this security situation that we think is insurmountable but they are really surmountable. We can tackle it.
But how can we tackle it?
It is for us to change the strategy and get all of government and all of people-approach towards tackling the security dilemma in the country.
You have been there; what do you think those handling the situations now need to do and are not doing?
I have given you the strategies. I was there. I used correct strategies and tactics and defeated them and obtained their unconditional surrender. They have gotten embolden now and they have more spread. Unfortunately, part of our recommendations, which would have prevented resurgence of this insurgency, was not implemented and that is our tragedy as a nation.
Many Nigerians have been calling for the retirement of the service chiefs on the premise that they are bereft of ideas to fight the insurgents, hence reasons the situations are getting worse by the day (cuts in).
Everybody is to be blamed. I have said it that we need all of government approach and all of people approach. That is the strategy; it cannot just be the service chiefs. We are getting it wrong. If we don’t understand the problem and how to tackle it, we will continue to blame ourselves until we are dead. The basic thing in any operation is to understand the threat and the problem and once you understand these you will now think of the strategy to tackle that problem. We are relying too much on the armed forces, which is wrong. The armed forces are not the only element of national power; it is a wrong approach to think so. And this crisis cannot be won by the army alone. If we are serious and want to win this, then we have to win it with all of government and people approach. That means all elements of national power, including the goodwill of the population, will be employed and deployed towards tackling this complex security dilemma facing us as a nation. It is not the armed forces’ or security agencies’ problems alone. As I told you, asymmetric wars are won or lost by controlling and influencing of the population. If the population is not controlled or influenced by government, then the population becomes the oxygen for the survival of the terrorists and insurgents.
Apart from social insecurity, we are also grappling with economic insecurity and from all indications; we are becoming a borrowing nation due to incessant borrowings by the present administration for one thing or the other. Is the future of the country not being mortgaged by this?
Well economists said one of the ways to recover from recession is to spend big on infrastructure. They say that if you spend big on infrastructure, you come out of recession. The economic wellbeing of the people also depends on the security too. National security is no longer defined in terms of state-centric; the political stability and economic wellbeing of the people is part of the national security. That the environment people live in is not degraded and not devastated is part of national security. All these aggregate to what national security is all about. If we are in a depression and people are out of work, especially a vibrant youthful population that is not gainfully employed, then such youths would channel their energies somewhere.
They may find place with the insurgents who are ready to pay them and use them. After all, what do they have to lose? So if the government is spending big to come out of recession, it is good. But what has been fuelling insurgency, which has become part and parcel of us, is corruption.
Corruption as it is today is the greatest threat to national security. All the resources that have been budgeted, how many of the money budgeted for has gotten to where it should be channeled and properly utilised? And this is why I think journalists should begin to interrogate all these. Year in year out, Nigeria at the state, local and federal government levels spend billions of naira, but does all the money spent translate to actual development on the ground? Has it improved the actual wellbeing and per capital income of the average Nigerians?
Almost every week now, you hear billions being spent on roads; but all the federal roads are deathtraps. You hear money being spent on schools, hospitals, but these facilities are still the same. We thought this COVID-19 would have taught us to start looking inward, for us to develop our health care infrastructure in such a way that we should be able to attract medical tourism to this country. However, you find out that the situation has further opened our medical personnel to job opportunities outside the country with better salaries and allowances. I think we should give the fight against corruption a good attention. It looks as if it is a one man fight; only the president is talking about corruption, but corruption around him keeps increasing. So as a people, we have to agree that we need to draw a line and begin to fight corruption in the true sense of it and that is part of people-approach. Today, I see a lot of our youths on social media praising people who cannot justify their sources of income or our legislature dishing out money for empowerment programmes. Where are those funds coming from? Is it from their salaries? They say constituency allowances, how much, we don’t even know. There’s no transparency in governance and this is as a result of corruption. So if we are able to fight this corruption well, Nigeria will be a better place.
But don’t you think there already distraction in government? While we are still in 2020, both politicians in government and outside have started scheming for 2023.
You cannot stop people from planning ahead; it is part of the hallmark of good leaders. Even in the USA, once you are getting to the third year of administration, people start planning. In fact over there in the US, it takes about a whole year, because you start doing the caucuses, primaries in the various states before the actual campaign starts. If it is planning, it is fine, but it shouldn’t distract the government. If you are not going to be on the ballot paper again, you should concentrate on executing your promises to the people and those who are interested in contesting should give way. Hillary Clinton served Obama for one term and left because she wanted to contest. So for anyone with the aim of contesting any election, the most honourable thing to do, if you are a minister, elected office holder or any appointee, is to give way and start planning and not by remaining in office and be scheming. If you are a president or governor and you have one more term, then you continue.
Defection from one political party to another after every election has become the norm in Nigeria and it is being done without recourse to the position of the constitution. What is the implication of this for our democracy and how can it be addressed?
Since the first republic, there have been defections and part of what we recommended at the 2014 National Conference is that if you defect, you must lose your seat, because the people elected you on a particular platform. It is probably because our parties lack ideologies. If you defect, you should lost your seat. I just saw a member of House of Representatives in the United States who defected to an independent because of what Trump has done or is doing now and also because the Republicans refused to call him to order. As a Republican, he saw that as a threat to democracy and so he left and became an independent. But in our own case because the parties don’t have internal democracy, they can’t give democracy to Nigeria; they lack ideologies and so people just use them as platforms to attain their political objectives.
Those parties are just there to provide those platforms; they are not providing the ideologies or base for people to spring up to salvage the country. It is sad. The only time we had parties with ideologies was in the first republic, where Nigerians would leave Jos and trek to Kano to go and listen to Mallam Aminu Kano because they were in NEPU and believe in the ideology of the political party. Nigerians then were contributing to the wellbeing of parties. But today we have moneybags who have hijacked political parties. So the parties cannot even hold themselves at the lower level. We need to get those party structures back. The second time we had it was when IBB brought out NRC AND SDP and that was beginning to entrench democratic processes and practices in Nigeria and the culture of democracy. It deepened democratic processes. But today it is moneybags establishing and running political parties here and there. There is a marriage of convenience and when they can no more work together, you see defecting. And that itself destabilises the country, because political stability, which is one of the critical elements of national security, is lacking.
Do you think it is right to jettison zoning by political parties?
Somebody told me there is no morality in politics, but once there is morality and justice and there is equity then there would be peace; there would be happiness. There would be liberty and freedom. But the absence of equity, justice and righteousness creates a situation of instability and anarchy and serious agitation and threat to pull out.
What do you think should be done to rescue the abducted Katsina schoolboys?
We need a strategy of all of government approach and all of people approach. Once we employ that strategy, you will be surprised that once the population of this country is properly organised and harnessed with the capacity of the people rebuilt towards providing security, the roles of the people saddled with the national defence properly articulated and their capacity improved to know their roles and act properly within the shortest time, we would put these security problems behind us. My heart goes out to the families of the abducted children and my prayer is that the children will not be harmed and that they come back to their parents as quickly as possible. Every element of our national power must be deployed towards tackling these security problems. It is not just using one element of national power, but so many elements of national power must be used. And we must build up our communities in a way that people must know their roles and communities will take part in providing security. All informants and accomplices are living in the communities. Some of them are in connivance. People know those who are doubtful characters; they are using flashy cars and nobody is asking questions. We are the ones fuelling the insurgency too. If the population decides to put a stop to it, it will stop. There are communal sanctions for certain offences, including ostracising and ex-communicating such people [offenders] from the society.
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